When previous data security solution gets an “F”, Tift County Schools switches to Cohesity

Tift County Schools experienced a major server failure while using a previous backup system. After weeks of effort and multiple support calls, the IT department had to accept that although the backups were intact, they couldn’t be restored. To make sure schools could keep operating after a ransomware attack or disaster, the district switched to Cohesity. Fortunate timing, because a critical financial server failed soon after. The IT team restored the server from Cohesity FortKnox, the Cohesity-managed cloud vault, in just one business day.

The Challenge

With 11 campuses in rural Georgia, Tift County Schools serves 8,000 students and employs 1,500 teachers and staff. Business systems like HR and payroll are hosted on about 60 physical and virtual servers. “Keeping data safe is one of the biggest concerns in K-12 education right now,” says Jonathan Judy, the district’s CIO. As board VP for Georgia Leaders of Educational Technology, Judy has an insider’s view of IT trends. “We need to prepare for ransomware and insider threat,” he says. “Our goal at Tift County Schools is to be able to make payroll within 48 hours of a cyberattack or natural disaster.”

Two years into using the previous backup solution, the district was caught off guard by a limitation they hadn’t known about. The IT team planned to replace an aging server over the weekend. “I could see our backed-up data, but the restore kept aborting because the system didn’t like our file names,” remembers Larry Howard, Network Engineer for Tift Schools. After weeks of futile effort, the vendor confirmed the district’s fear: the data was gone forever. “If the district had been hit by a ransomware attack while using our previous backup vendor, we would not have been able to restore the data we need to manage the school district or make payroll,” Judy says. “We need a data security solution we could count on after a cyberattack or natural disaster.”

The Solution

After evaluating four data security solutions, Tift County Schools chose Cohesity Data Cloud. “Cohesity offered to set up a proof of concept, saying, ‘Let us prove we can backup, restore, and keep your data safe,’” Judy says. “And that’s what they did.” The district especially likes Cohesity security protections, including immutable backups and a requirement that two people need to approve any changes to backups, a safeguard against insider threat. Howard deployed the Cohesity solution without assistance. “Cohesity is easy to deploy, easy to learn, and easy to use,” he says.

The district currently backs up the HR, finance, and payroll systems, plus certain learning content. Backups reside on a Cohesity appliance, and also in Cohesity FortKnox, a Cohesity-managed cloud vault. “With Cohesity FortKnox, we have a backup that won’t be affected by a local disaster like a fire, flood, or tornado,” Howard says.

The Results

The Cohesity solution proved its worth soon after it was deployed, when the district’s financial server failed suddenly on a Sunday afternoon. The IT team decided to restore the physical server as a virtual machine, saving the cost of a new server. The glitch-free experience contrasted sharply with the previous year’s disaster. “We started restoring the financial server from Cohesity on Monday morning and finished by the end of the business day,” says Howard. “When the finance team got to work on Tuesday morning, the virtual machine was up and running.” The experience gives the district confidence in its resilience from cyber events. “You can’t prevent all ransomware attacks because no defense will catch everything,” Howard continues. “What you need is to recover data, and with Cohesity we know we can.”

The IT team likes knowing it can count on Cohesity Cyber Event Response Team (CERT) to help during emergencies. “After a cyberattack, law enforcement is focused on finding the threat actor,” Judy says. “The cyber insurance provider is focused on minimizing the payout. Cohesity CERT experts are on our team, focused on why the event happened and how to prevent it from happening again. That’s a huge value add.”

Backups are faster than they were with the previous backup solution. Judy sums it up, “Quickly restoring data after a breach is one of the most important responsibilities of a school district CIO. Every school system should make sure backups are protected and immutable, and that one copy is located offsite. One of the things I value about Cohesity as a partner is the help they can provide if the unexpected happens. In those situations it’s the people that you’ve chosen to do business with that are going to have your back.”

Now Tift County Schools is exploring other ways Cohesity can help the district securely manage backups and get more value from their data. One idea is using Cohesity Gaia for AI-powered search. “Today we rarely dig into backups for answers or insights because search is difficult or impossible,” says Judy. “AI-powered search with Gaia would be huge.” Another idea is backing up the district’s Google Drive to Cohesity, adding another layer of protection. The IT team is also thinking about hunting for hidden threats in backups with AI-powered anomaly detection, threat scanning and detection of dormant threats in backup data.

Key Benefits

• Faster restores for failed financial server
• Exceeded target recovery objectives for payroll systems
• 1 consolidated management interface for on-prem and cloud backups

About Tift County Schools

Tift County Schools is a K-12 public school system that serves the city of Tifton and surrounding areas in Tift County, Georgia. The system has approximately 8,000 students and 1,500 teachers and staff across 11 campuses.